The Delightful Phrase: Are There Really Designerly Ways of Knowing?

“Designerly ways of knowing” is a phrase used in the much-cited article of the same name, written by Nigel Cross in 1982.1 The phrase was first used in Design in General Education2; it has been called “delightful”3; and Cross often refers to it in his subsequent publications.4 The key sentence in Cross’s 1982 article is this: “Design has its own distinct ‘things to know, ways of knowing them, and ways of finding out about them.’”5 Particularly in this article, this concept of “designerly ways of knowing” is under scrutiny. The concept is only part of Cross’s argument, which was especially concerned with the role of design in education. Cross argues that the aim of education in design is not instrumental but for its own sake, for reasons stemming from design’s intrinsic values. These intrinsic values, he argues, depend on “designerly ways of knowing.” In a later article, Cross also argues that design research and design education also are concerned with designerly ways of knowing.6 What began as an element in an argument about design education has led to the pervasive presence of the concept of designerly ways of knowing in design research. As of December 2022, Cross’s article has been cited approximately 5,540 times.7